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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Confetti Cannon

When the MQG sent out an email a few months ago, regarding the Quiltcon Michael Miller challenge, I very quickly signed up thinking "this will be fun!" I received my little bundle of pastel cotton couture weeks later and thought "Ummmmmm". I had no idea how to make the pastels work. I mean, I've only ever used pastels a few times in my quilting life, so was left a bit deflated. I took them out again not long after and just stared at them. That was when I thought of Confetti. The tiny little pieces of pastel paper, which are used in celebrations everywhere. And that was my inspiration......

I went "old school" for the planning of this quilt. After weeks of having confetti twirling around in my head, I got myself some grid paper and pencils, and literally just drew up what I'd been thinking of. And the following day, made the entire quilt top.

As per usual, I winged it a bit! I made it up as I went along - literally dividing my design up in to blocks of squares of rectangles, however the little confetti spots would fit in. The 3" snowball blocks were easy-peasy. 34 in total. Because I wanted the confetti to be randomly scattered throughout the quilt top, it made the piecing rather, shall we say "interesting"? It is probably what some Modern peeps would call "improvisational" - I just call it random! But it worked - and that was the end result I was after...

Once I had the top made, I thought and thought and thought about how on earth I was going to quilt it. I had an idea in my head, but thankfully one of my lovely MQG friends - Katrina - cemented the idea and helped me visualise it! I think the diagonal lines from the bottom corner help create movement and project the confetti up in to the air!

I mostly stuck with the grey for the binding, but also added a little pastel rainbow to the side. I LOVE it!

This photo shows you a little more closely how the piecing has been done. It's one very fiddly jigsaw puzzle!

The Michael Miller challenge rules are to use all Cotton Couture in the quilt top and then any Michael Miller fabric for the binding and backing. I made a quick trip down to the large quilting store nearby and scoured their shelves for something to suit as backing. This quilt was always going to be for a baby/child, so when I stumbled (literally, I stumbled over it) over this Backyard Baby print, I grabbed it! It's SO perfect.

It's a little difficult to photograph, but I used several pastel shades of Aurifil in the quilting - re-threading my machine after every. single. row. Was it time consuming? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes!!

I spent all day Saturday stressing about the photos to submit! You see, I've never actually entered a quilt show! And the rules state only two photographs to be sent in - one hanging on a wall and the other a close up. So I moved furniture in my front room so as not to get any shadows and did my best! I guess only time will tell.....

I have thoroughly enjoyed this challenge - because it really was a challenge! Throw a girl some pastels and see what she can come up with!

The quilting is perfect with this design. It really makes the confetti feel more alive. It seems a lot of people had a hard time with this pastel challenge but everyone has risen to the challenge and created stunning results! The grey as a background fabric is just wonderful. I've used grey as a background a few times and rather prefer it over white though mostly cause it doesn't get as dirty!! haha

I think you nailed it. I'm not a big fan of pastels, but your use of them here is perfect. I love how the quilting really makes the confetti pieces appear to be shooting upwards and how the soft gray background makes the pastels pop...It's a beautiful, whimsical quilt. Congrats and good luck in the challege!

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